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Teaching English overseas is a great way to travel, and most foreigners working in Buenos Aires are working as English teachers. The market for this is huge, and there is a lot of money to be made. Unfortunately, all of that money to be made is going to the companies that hire the English teachers. However, the good thing about ESL teaching in Buenos Aires is you can work, make a living (barely) and you don´t need to have citizenship or a visa. It´s an easy way to extend your time in Buenos Aires, and gives you the opportunity to truly immerse yourself into the Argentine culture.

One way around the poor wages is to teach ESL on your own. If you teach private classes, you can usually charge up to $40 pesos an hour. If you are teaching professionals in a large company, you can charge from $50 to $60 pesos an hour. With this kind of money, you can make a pretty decent living in Buenos Aires. The only downside is that it takes a while to build up your business, and will often take some effort to promote it.

Students participating in overseas teaching programs may also consider enrolling in an online MBA degree. It’s an easy way to travel, work and study all at once.

Here is some information you may be interested in, if you are thinking of teaching English in Buenos Aires.

What is required to teach ESL in Buenos Aires?

Truthfully, the only 100% requirement you need to teach English in Buenos Aires is to be a native English speaker. You can come here, without a degree, without a TESL certificate, without experience, and probably still make a living as an ESL teacher. However, it will be much more difficult, because your options will be limited. A University degree, ESL certificate, and experience will make your life much easier, and will greatly expand the quantity of companies that would hire you. The most important of these three things is probably a proper ESL certificate, followed by a University degree, though each company´s hiring requirements are different.

Can you take a TEFL course in Buenos Aires?

Yes, there are a number of different schools that offer a course so you can become TEFL certified.

Do you need a Work Visa to teach English in Buenos Aires?

No. It is well understood by most ESL schools and institutions that when they hire ESL teachers, they will not have a Visa. Of course, you should confirm that this will not be a problem when you are being interviewed.

What is the expected salary for an ESL teacher in Buenos Aires?

The rate right now is around $25 – $30 pesos an hour. This does not usually include prep-time or travel time, and you will often spend a fair amount of time doing both. There are a handful of schools that pay significantly less, but you teach all your classes at an institution, where you are also paid for prep-time.

Do you need your own materials?

This really depends on who you are working for. It is a good idea to bring some with you, because if the institution you work for does NOT provide teaching materials, you will have to buy them yourself, and the selection in Buenos Aires is not very good.

TEFL Schools in Buenos Aires

There are a number of options if you are interested in taking a tefl course in Buenos Aires.

CCLS is a language school in Buenos Aires (2 locations) which offers Spanish, English and Portuguese classes to foreigners living, working or visiting Argentina. We offer group or one-on-one classes, from basic to advanced Spanish, as well as specific courses (business, biological area, marketing, etc..).

I’ve been living in Buenos Aires for 2.5yrs as a TEFL teacher. The best place to do your course is International House (http://www.ih-buenosaires.com/index.php), they provide a Cambridge University CELTA course which is an amazing course which teaches you everything you need to know (well, maybe except the grammar, but you learn that as you go along so no need to worry about it!). BA is a brilliant place to live and working as an English teacher is a great way of becoming integrated in society, getting to meet loads of Argentinians and have a ball basically.

There are loads of agencies who help you get work, some of the better ones that I can personally recommend are (if you’re not lucky enough to work with IH themselves that is) are BA English and Dialog studio.

Hope this is of use to someone! : )

Lindsey

ps. more info available on visas, living arrangements, costs etc all stored in my giant memory bank if anyone wants to reply and get more info.

I’m looking for ESL teaching positions in Buenos Aires right now! I’m in Rio but moving to BA next week! I’m from the US and have read quite a mix of info regarding the availability of teaching positions available as well as the satisfaction teachers have had with teaching in BA. I am still going full speed ahead and looking very forward to working hard and having a great time! I know it may be difficult at first, but as with anything, I think the experience is what you make of it! Thanks for the information, people above! Esp Lindsay! I’m looking into the places you suggested. I already have my certification, plus a BA and MBA. I hope this helps me as well. Any other info in greatly appreciated! jnll.gtrrz@gmail.com

Hi Lindsay! Thanks for the great info. Your offer of “more info available on visas, living arrangements, costs etc all stored in my giant memory bank if anyone wants to reply and get more info” is most welcome.

My research on Craigslist doesn’t show any apartments to share in BA that aren’t actually weekly rentals to tourists. Is it possible to find shares, and, if so, what’s the price range for a frugal, student traveller?